Edward Willett

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Flight

In this age of 747s and Concordes and supersonic jet fighters, it's sometimes hard to realize that airplanes have existed for less than a century. Even manned gliders, which came before powered airplanes, have only been around for slightly over a hundred years. In fact, 1991 was the 100th anniversary of the first glider flight by aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal. Lilienthal believed that the best way for humans to figure out how to fly heavier-than-air craft was to first figure out how birds fly--after all, birds are heavier than air, too. He began systematic aerodynamic studies of bird flight, and in 1889 published his results in a book, Bird Flight ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 11:02, April 15th, 1992 under Blog, Columns, Science Columns | Comment now »